Mac Mac Falls

Mac Mac drops roughly seventy metres into a narrow gorge, and the reason it falls as two streams rather than one is human: nineteenth-century gold diggers blasted the lip with dynamite trying to divert the river and reach the gravel beneath, splitting the fall permanently. The name came from a colonial administrator who noticed how many Scottish surnames were on the diggers' register. It is a national monument. The viewing platform is a short walk from the road behind a fence, since the gorge sides are sheer. A few kilometres away the Mac Mac Pools are a separate site where the river runs over rock into shallow pools that people swim in, with picnic sites and a short interpretive trail. The surrounding country is commercial pine and eucalyptus plantation, which is what most of this district looks like now.

What you actually see

• The split by dynamite - a single fall blasted into two by gold diggers.
• The seventy-metre drop - twin streams into a narrow gorge.
• The Scottish name - a joke about the surnames on the diggers' register.
• The Mac Mac Pools - a separate swimming and picnic site a few kilometres away.

When to go

November to April for volume. One hour, or longer if you include the pools.

Honest expectations

The falls themselves are viewed from behind a fence - there is no way down. The pools are a different site with a separate fee. Surrounding forestry plantation is not scenic. Weekends and holidays fill both car parks.

Nearby

Sabie and Lone Creek Falls are south; Graskop is north.